Uproar over Seattle U's choice

Group says Locke shouldn't talk at commencement

Elizabeth M. Gillespie, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, April 15, 2005

A conservative Catholic watchdog group has lashed out at Seattle University for picking former Gov. Gary Locke to deliver this year's commencement speech, saying his support for abortion rights, same-sex partner benefits and other causes clashes with church doctrine.

In a statement posted on the Jesuit university's Web site earlier this week, the school's president, the Rev. Stephen Sundborg, praised Locke for his work to improve education, welfare reform and trade. "The integrity and compassion that underlie (his) accomplishments exemplify the values of Seattle University," Sundborg said.

"Integrity and compassion? Not from a Catholic point of view!" Reilly said. "Locke is a steadfast enemy of defenseless preborn children and all those who would protect their lives."

Reilly ticked off a list of complaints about Locke, a Democrat whose second term ended in January:

A statement Locke made last year urging politicians to be vigilant about upholding Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

His opposition to a ban on so-called partial-birth abortion and to requirements that parents be notified if their underage daughter is seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

A directive he gave the state Public Employee Benefits Board to let state employees add their same-sex partners to their health insurance plans, a change adopted in 2000.

His support of a ban on state scholarships to ministry students -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court upheld last year.

Reilly argued that those views run counter to the Catholic Church's core teachings and said the university's decision to have him speak and grant him an honorary doctoral degree amounted to public defiance of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' warning last summer that Catholic colleges and universities should not honor dissenting lawmakers.

He urged Sundborg to rescind the offer.

Sundborg was traveling yesterday and not immediately available for comment.

Locke, who joined a blue-chip Seattle law firm after leaving the governor's mansion, said the criticism didn't faze him.

"That's what a university is all about," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview yesterday from San Francisco, where he was traveling on a business trip. "Universities are to foster examination of divergent views and critical thinking."

The Cardinal Newman Society said it wrote to Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett asking that he ask the university to withdraw the invitation.

Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said Brunett and Sundborg had not discussed the university's choice of commencement speaker and that there did not appear to be any reason for the archdiocese to intervene.